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Published: October 2nd 2008
Now you see us, now you don’t! So much has happened since our last blog, so I guess that’s the best place to start…
My Birthday in Rhodes was amazing and a lot of fun, but shortly after Kels and I decided that we wanted a change of scenery and started discussing our options. During these discussions we talked with my dad who pitched us an offer that really appealed to us: see our friends and family, spend some good summer time on Vancouver Island and even make a couple bucks while we were here. So after that conversation, Kels and I booked a ticket home and prepared ourselves to leave Rhodes.
We had a great couple of “last nights” with Megan and her Greek circle of family and friends and then we took off to Munich for a few days where we stayed with our friends Ruth, Davide and Martin, before flying back to Vancouver.
The hardest part about coming home was that it was kind of a secret. Except for my Dad and Kelsey’s sister, no one knew, as it was Kelsey’s goal to surprise her parents…and you can imagine the shock on Stacey’s face when
Munich is 850!
Celebrating with Ruth in Munich...cool German Hip Hop and tasty German Beer!we showed up casually on a Wednesday evening at the end of July with Tiffany! I got video of the whole thing, but I don’t want to put all those “Oh my Gods!” and “What’s going ons!” on the web! It was great to be back with family and after a couple of drinks, the heart rates slowed down and we could tell our stories and catch up.
While we were in Victoria, walking back from Thrifty’s (with a bag full of candied salmon & oysters…love it!) Kels and I fell in love. Not with each other (that happened long time ago, and it’s still awesome), but we fell in love with a 1984 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper-Van, now known as “Blue”. We couldn’t resist, so we dipped into some savings and took Blue up to Courtenay with us. It was such an awesome deal and now Blue, Kels and I are all “happy campers!”
We made it up to Courtenay in time for our good friend’s Andy & Cailey’s wedding, which was a great time as it was a bit of a Zoo-Union as well, with Chris, Reed, and Scotty (the guys I lived with during the college
Boys & Dirndls
Partying in Munich with friends! years in Victoria) coming to Courtenay for the wedding and few extra days/nights of copious Luckys.
When the hangovers subsided we started our new jobs working with my dad at his new resort in Oyster Bay, Ocean Resort (the place where we got married last year). It was fantastic to see my dad again, and enjoy the ‘stillness’ at his place. Our task was to assist in opening the Stillness Centre which houses a Spiritual Library, a Meditation Sanctuary, a Dining Room, a Meeting Room, a Fitness Room and two Infrared Saunas. It’s a beautiful space, and now it looks even better as Kels was in charge of the interior decorating, which brought out a lot of untapped creativity and actualised a lot of great ideas. Kels also was cook for a retreat, reupholstered the old dining room chairs, provided direction on all “things to hang”, regularly made lunch for all the workers and even worked out how to operate a power drill! What a woman! I worked mostly on the marketing end of things assisting in the design and photography of the new website (www.oceanresort.ca), created a new brochure, devised an advertising plan, and even wrote a published
Car Party
On the way to Andy & Cailey's wedding. article on Spiritual Tourism, as well as regular shifts of hanging driftwood from ceilings and walls, cutting rocks, painting, cooking, cleaning, and lots of running around in general. It was a great experience for Kels and I and it expanded our horizons in many ways.
Of course while we were home we made the best of it on the weekends, enjoying all that Vancouver Island has to offer in a summer as beautiful as 2008. One weekend we went camping at Little Qualicum Falls with Kelsey’s parents, which included swimming in the river, a long game of beach bocchi, a tight round of golf, an even tighter tournament of campground badminton, great food and drink and lots of sun and laughs. Another weekend we went fishing at our favourite spot on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Nootka sound with my dad and brother, which brought us big swells, a few fish, and lots of quality time watching the rods. Kels and I also celebrated our 1st Anniversary, spending the day together in some of our favourite local spots and enjoying a night in a cozy little cabin at Dolphins Resort in Campbell River, where we actually spent
The Blue Team
Good times at A & C's wedding. our first night as a married couple, but this time we managed to stay for more then 6 hours and got good use out of the place… And finally another amazing weekend we spent in the great outdoors took us and “Blue” out to Tofino, where we met up with our friends Dan and Esther for two great nights of camping, kayaking, beach croquet, fire wood stealing, surfing, and as per usual lots of drinks and “meat for fire”. (You’re gonna have to ask Dan W. about that one…).
As I reflect back on this amazing past two months, I can see why it went by so fast…time really does fly when you’re having fun! Believe it or not, amongst all this fun, we managed to get a hell of a lot of work done with my dad and his team and it’s very gratifying to see the whole of Ocean Resort in it’s fully operational state. Good luck to my dad, Marion Ann, Dennis, Cheryl, and the rest of the amazing crew at Ocean.
And just like that, now Kels and I have our backpacks packed and are on the move again. It’s been a great two
You can dress 'em up...
he drinks Lucky, she drinks Champagne... months, but Africa was always on our plans and we’re still going for it! Tomorrow we fly out from Vancouver to Paris where we get to take in the ‘city of love’ for a couple of days, before making our way by train to Luxembourg, and then drinking our way up the German Riesling rich Mosel Valley on our way to Koblenz and then to visit our good Aussie Mate “Lovie” in Dusseldorf, before getting on a plane in Frankfurt.
We fly from Frankfurt to Cairo, Egypt where we have 5 days to explore the ancients on our own, before we fly to Nairobi, Kenya where we will meet up with our African Trails groups, with whom we’ll be spending then next 10 weeks travelling overland through the south-east countries of Africa. Did I mention that it will be 10 weeks camping in a tent in Africa!!! Our travels will take us to Uganda to trek into the mountain jungles to see the great mountain gorillas and also test our skills on class 5 rapids on the Nile River (see “de Nile” IS a river in Africa!). Then we cross back into Kenya to the Rift Valley where we
Wine V.I. Style!
A beautiful evening at Lucas' place. have to opportunity to work with local schools, farms and orphanages and see wildlife galore (pink flamingos, zebra, waterbuck, impala, giraffe, leopard and white rhino…). Then onwards to Masai Mara where we camp outside the game reserve and search for the Big Five (that’s Big Five, not High Five, meaning lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino…that’s cool!). Heading then south, we enter Tanzania and the Serengeti National Park…amazing! After camping amidst the animals, we head for the Swahili coast and to the spice-island of Zanzibar. From there, onwards to Malawi and spend some time on the great lake of the same name and then enter Mozambique and then onwards to Zambia where we’ll reach Victoria Falls (which by the way Kels is determined to bungee off of at 300-feet high, the highest bungee in the world…as for me, we’ll have to see how I’m feeling that day…heights aren’t my favourite thing!) Then we cross into Botswana and the Kalahari Desert and then continue into Namibia for more animal encounters including elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, ostrich, springbok, jackals, hyenas and meerkats…and possibly a few more… And then we get to hike the 300-foot high Dune 45 in the Namib Desert before
Pop a Top!
Camping in Qualicum with Ray & Stacey and our new VW Van "Blue" crossing into South Africa where we get to hit up some of the wineries (it’s about friggin time!) before finishing our tour in Cape Town, just before New Years!!! Talk about a trip! I’ll keep you all posted how many clicks are on the odometer! Then Kels and I have 2 weeks in South Africa on our own before we make the mega-flight back form Cape Town to Vancouver via Frankfurt on January 16th!
Wow, wow, wow…so that’s what’s going on in our lives! For all our friends who we were able to visit and came to visit us, it was great to see you. And for those who we weren’t able to connect with, we’ll have to do it in the New Year! As we travel away from home again, we feel truly blessed to come from such an amazing place where we are surrounded by beauty and amazing people; as we also feel blessed that we can travel and see other corners of this small world of ours, connecting with our fellow man. Thank you.
Please keep your updates coming our way, we love hearing from everyone and we’ll do our best to keep this blog
Kels' Catch!
She fought the Coho "head-shake" and brought the beauty in the boat! current while we’re away…we’ll keep our fingers crossed for connection in Africa!
Love to everyone, take care of yourselves and those you love.
Until next time…
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Lovie
non-member comment
Whoa
You guys are spinning me out with your Africa plans - look forward to seeing you guys REAL soon!